VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

PART TWO: ROBERT BOBB’S BACKGROUND

Before coming to Detroit in March, 2009, Robert Bobb had just vacated the seat of President of the Washington, D.C. school board that he been elected to in 2006. Back then the shoe was on the other foot. Just as he was being seate4 newly elected Mayor Adrian Fenty engineered a takeover of the school board. Bobb fought for the independence of the board, as well as his own power. One headline in the Washington Post read “Bobb opposes Mayoral control of DC schools”, in marked contrast to his position in Detroit two years later. He even invoked voters rights as a reason for opposing mayoral control of the schools.

Two years before that, however, when his boss Mayor Williams wanted to take control of the schools, Bobb was helping him do so. Since Mayor Anthony Williams was in his last term and letting Bobb manage the City, this would have given Bobb effective control over the schools as well. The only consistent pattern in all of this is that Bobb took the public policy posture that been suited his personal power goals.

Control of the schools included control of $2.3 billion dollars in construction activity for the DC Public Schools. After pledging cooperation with newly elected Mayor Fenty, however, Bobb, then President of the School Board, tried to secretly arrange to kill Fenty’s takeover by having U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu block the authorizing legislation, since Congress still controlled the DC City Charter. When this was exposed, Bobb lost the fight and his fulItime job with McFarlane Associates, a major commercial developer that had supported the election of both Bobb and Fenty. He was thereafter dubbed “back door Bobb” in the press. (“A Civics Lesson for Schools to Skip.” Colbert I. King, Washington Post)

The school board had been attractive to Bobb in part because of the big construction contracts, an activity that has marked Bobb’s efforts in every city that he has worked in. With his reputation as a deal maker, the construction industry, real estate, banking, architecture and engineering interests bankrolled his campaign. He raised six times the amount of his nearest competitor, who was on City Council. In fact, most of his contributors gave the maximum allowable contribution, with relatively few small donors. A review of his donors shows that Bobb had only 70 donors who gave $50 or less, but 367 donors gave the $500 muimum, indicating Bobb’s real base of support were commercial interests far fromWashington, DC, not local taxpayers and parents seeking reform.

In one glaring example, the ThompsonCobb Bazilio & Associates (TCBA) accounting firm partners, relatives and a related corporation gave at least $12,250 to Bobb’s school board campaign. The related firm, DC Chartered Health, had as its sole client the Washington DC city government that Bobb was running. Their contract was for distributing Medicaid services, for which they earned very low performance ratings.

When Bobb took control of Detroit Public School finances, he gave TCBA three short term contracts worth $553,170, although they were actually paid$672,344-05. This despite the fact that there are many accounting firms in metro Detroit or Michigan that could have done this work.

Bobb also had several entities in the Philadelphia areathat put together 15 maximum donations for $7,500, even though they are all more than 100 miles from Washington, D.C., unusual fundraising for a school board seat. Two of the corporations involved had no corporate filings with the State of Pennsylvania.

One maximum contribution came from the firm that would later fire him, McFarlane Partners, but McFarlane interests made substantial contributions through indirect routes. McFarlane Partners is engaged in commercial real estate projects. Victor McFarlane, principal of McFarlane Partners of San Francisco, had a 25 percent interest in Forest City Enterprises, from which came $8,000 in maximum donations from employees and relatives in Ohio, California, Colorado and Maryland. There were no contributions in Victor McFarlane’s name.

Although the fight with the new Mayor was on over control of the D.C. school district, Bobb focused on his first priority – getting contracts approved. He and the superintendent bundled together a billion dollars in contracts within two months of Bobb taking office and tried without success to get the Mayor to approve them.

Bobb’s deal making in the nation’s capitol in prior years as Ctty Manager hit a snag in 2005 when the independent DC Auditor General found that Bobb had abused DC policies for four contracts that he arranged. Due to the billions that Granholm has given him control of over a two year period and the failure to vigorously monitor his activity to date, it is necessary to look at length how he operated in Washington, DC when he was given a free hand to run affairs in that city.

One contract was for an acquaintance from Oakland, California that was allowed to “begin rendering services to the District government based only on a verbal agreement, according to the AG report. Improper payments of $10,000 each were made without a contract in place, based on invoices that did not detail services rendered.

Another Oakland acquaintance was paid $26,500 without a written contract in three invoices split to avoid a $25,000 reporting requirement. There was no proposal outlining tasks and their projected costs and no justification for sole-sourcing the contract.

The same vendor was also given a $75,000 contract for developing a baseball stadium legislative

strategy activity. The Auditor General found that the contract was not in compliance with procurement practices and that Bobb’s statement of justification was “inaccurate.”

Jane Brunner was an Oakland, California City Council member who had supported Bobb when he was fired as City Manager there in 2003. She was given a confiact by Bobb to develop apprenticeship and pre apprenticeship programs for a Washington, D.C. baseball stadium construction project. These are services that the US Departrnent of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship provide for free. Yet Bobb gave her a $90,000 contract although he only had authority to approve confacts up to $25,000.

The AG found that there was circumvention of internal controls that were in place and an official flouting of procurement law, regulations and ethical standards.” Bobb was the sole signer on the contract.

Brunner also drafted a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) that was outside the scope of her contract. The actual PLA was found to have been a word-for-word plagiaization of an agreement draft that had been written by the area’s building trades council.

The AG concluded that “The City Administrator’s (Robert Bobb) action of identifying friends and associates, principally from Oakland, California for non-competitive, sole source ‘deals’ with the District govemment resulted in transactions that were not: “above reproach, arms length, completely impartial and free from the appearance of preferential treatment.”

DC Watch, a watchdog group, said that “Mayor Williams’ and Bobb’s response to the exposure has been arrogant defiance and promises of more of the same to come in the future.” They also noted that Bobb maintained investments, real estate and consulting firms in Oakland. Bobb told the local WTOP radio that “I make no apologies for it at all. None. Zero. Zilch.”

After Bobb left office, the Washington, D.C. Auditor General also found that Bobb collected a $31,200 “bonus” as he was leaving City government that was part of a pattern with others that violated a number of City rules. While he was City Manager during the last months of his administration, over $528,000 was spent on bonuses. Rules that were violated included limits on bonuses paid out improperly as amounts, requirements that the bonuses be tied to documentable performance and that they have proper approvals. Bobb’s unauthorized “bonus” was far higher than any other D.C. official.

The AG also found that Bobb allowed “bonuses” to be paid to l0 staff members based only on those employees’ opinion of their own work performance and that those bonuses equaled seven to eight percent of their salaries. Appended internal memoranda to the AG report stated that Bobb had approved 27 of 28 of the bonuses and that the payments were to be made expeditiously, as it was noted by the AG that many were leaving office. Bonuses, of course, are incentives to long term employees and are not to be used as parting gifts. One “bonus” of $15,600 was paid to an employee who had left city government, what Bobb in Detroit would have called a ghost employee. Although unnamed in the report, an accompanying table of the payouts shows that the ex-employee (or ghost employee) that received a govemment bonus after he left government was Robert Bobb.

As a result of the above abuses, the DC government rewrote the bonus pay process after

Bobb left.

Bobb was also found to have approved in September 2006 a request to allow a city appointee, E. Veronica Pace, to keep $75,000 in payroll overpayments that she was not entitled to. Rather than notify the city of the payroll error, Pace collected the excess pay for eight months and then asked Bobb to let her keep those uneamed payments. Two months later Bobb was overruled, with the notice that he did not have the authority to allow her to keep that money. (Washington Times, June 17, 2007)

Bobb was also a salesman for building a baseball stadium under terms that committed the residents of Washington, D.C. to pay $611 million in construction costs, a proposal he helped push through city council despite overwhelming voter opposition.

Bobb in Oakland

Robert Bobb was City Manager in Oakland California from November 17,1997 until he was fired by the Mayor on July 1,2003. The cause for firing was his campaigning for building a stadium for the Oakland Athletics baseball team, a project that the Mayor opposed. After the termination, he suggested in the media that the Athletics hire him, but no offer materialized. He then formed LAPA Group LLC as his private consulting company.

Bobb in Richmond

Prior to Oakland, Bobb was City Manager of Richmond, Virginia from July 1986 to November 1997. After he left city government his Robert Bobb Group became partner in a nearly one billion dollar construction project for Richmond that would include a baseball stadium. He was working this project while he was City Manager in Oaklan4 California. When he ran for office in2006 in Washington, D.C., a law frm in Richmond bundled $4,000 in contributions for his campaign for a school board seat over a hundred miles away.

Bobb in Santa Ana

Robert Bobb was hired in January 1984 as City Manager in Santa Ana, California and worked there until July 1986. He planned a major development project in downtown Santa Ana that was opposed by a real estate association and the UCLA School of Architecture, both of whom had been commissioned by the city to study the matter  (Project Set to Move Forward Despite Recommendations to Contrary; Santa Ana Appeqrs Set to Build Downtown Offices and Hotel, L.A. Times, 2-28-1985).

The Times also reported that Santa Ana had more construction projects than any City except San Diego and Los Angeles (Santa Ana’s Departing Manager Predicts Racial Tensions).

During Bobb’s tenure, citizens mounted an initiative to disband the City Manager position and restore a full time Mayor (Group Proposes Shake-Up in Santa Ana, Urges Vote, L.A. Times 12 28-1985). This focus on construction would mark Bobb’s career, including at Detroit Public Schools, where the new construction was not the priority as so many good buildings lay empty.

Bobb Schools With Broad

In 2005 Bobb underwent a ten month training program sponsored by the Edythe and Eli

Broad Foundation and was anointed a Broad Fellow. This was at a time when he had no

education background and was still City Manager in Washington, D.C. The foundation, based in Los Angeles, developed a program in 1999 targetrng public school districts. Because Broad trained Bobb and pays him $56,000 beyond his public salary, some understanding of Broad is needed to understand Bobb’s assignment over our school District.

Eli Broad made his billions by home building (Broad and Kaufrnan), starting in Michigan 50 years ago. He later moved to Los Angeles, got in the insurance business and retired. He set up foundations that helped spread his influence and wealth. In 1999, the year that then-Governor John Engler took over Defroit Public Schools, Broad set up a foundation to change public education, targeting public school districts.

On November 16, 2001, Broad and John Engler set up the Broad Center for Superintendents

(now the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems) in Washington, D.C. It was

announced in the U.S. Capitol Building, suggesting the ultimate target of political power that Broad was tying to reach. The goal of the Broad Center was to bring non-educators into leadership of school districts in order to restructure them. In2A02 the Broad Center launched the Broad Superintendent’s Academy to specifically target vulnerable urban districts.

In 2005 Robert Bobb graduated from the Broad Superintendent’s Academy while he was still a City Manager in Washington, D.C. When Governor Jennifer Granholm was in Washington, D.C. for the January 20, 2009 presidential inauguration, she met Bobb at the recommendation of Eli Broad and began the process that resulted in his selection.

Since his hire in Detroit, the Broad Foundation has been paying Bobb to carry out its agenda and DPS has being paylng some costs of bringing Broad Foundation staff to work on temporary assignment in Detroit, according to contacts and reports on the DPS and Broad websites.

Bobb received $28,000 directly from Broad in his first year at DPS, plus up to $15,000 in moving expenses. In the second year contract Bobb was paid $56,000 by the Los Angeles foundation. All of this was approved by the Governor, whose office actually assisted in identifying funders for Bobb’s paycheck, according to interoffice emails from the Governor’s office.

The idea that public offrcials are partially paid by private parties who seek to influence officials to use public positions to serve their private ends is boldly unethical. At the federal level, such a contract is felonious. If private groups have a compelling agenda that serves the public interest, they do not have to pay officials to implement their recommendations. In the case of Broad their policies are clearly contrary to the stimulation of a more robust Detroit Public School system.

A CASE STUDY; PART ONE

Russ Bellant listens to Robert Bobb speak to House Education Committee Feb. 8, 2011

By Russ Bellant

 (Ed. note: Mr. Bellant submitted this report — all four sections published here — to the Michigan Senate Education Committee during its hearing on Senate Bills     Feb. 23, 2011. The House has since passed their equivalent of the bills, and the Senate, despite having Mr. Bellant’s report, was poised to pass their bills March 9.)

 This work is dedicated to:

 Dr. Irene Norde, head of DPS curriculum, who was subpoenaed and testified in court under oath about the truth concerning Robert Bobb’s activities and was thereafter singled out for termination. Dr. Norde has since been selected by her peers as President-Elect of the Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics. MCTM includes teachers and administrators from pre-K to College.    

and

 Walter Esaw, the DPS executive budget director who tried to show Bobb fiscal realities and a real deficit reduction plan and lost his job as a result.

DPS EFM Robert Bobb and former Governor Jennifer Granholm: was it largely their fault that Detroiters did not turn out to elect a Democratic governor in November?

PART ONE: The Other Side of Robert Bobb

The well-crafted image of Robert Bobb in Detroit is compelling. He is an anti-corruption crime buster dedicated to redirecting resources to the education of our children. He is a trustworthy figure fighting a self-perpetuating system of corption that is trying to block change for the education of our children. As a tireless, dedicated, incorruptable agent of the Governor, he is like the Marshall of the old West, coming into town in cowboy boots to right wrongs and then will move on to other challenges.

Little of this image, however, is true.

Since Mr. Bobb has become Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) at Detroit Public Schools, he has repeatedly made and left on the record recklessly false claims, has abused his contracting authority and has been in continuous violation of state laws and possibly federal law. He let it be known to DPS employees that their jobs are on the line if they cooperate with the former General Superintendent or the elected Board of Education. Some contracts are let to family and friends of Mr. Bobb and his top appointees, many of whom are living high on the hog at the expense of DPS.

DPS workers rally against Bobb/Granholm policies Aug. 25 2009 Photo by Diane Bukowski

By telling the underreported side of Robert Bobb and his network that is exploiting Detroit Public Schools, this report is also looking at the failure of the EFM model under Public Act 72, which legally created the EFM in 1990. The law assumes a well-intentioned and attentive Governor with the ultimate responsibility for EFM accountability. There is no recourse when that oversight fails.

In order to understand the context in which this takeover is understood in Detroit, this report begins with a brief look at the 1999 state takeover of Detroit Public Schools. The failures of the first takeover created the conditions for it to happen again under the EFM law.

The First State Takeover

On March 26,1999, Public Act 10 was approved in Lansing to give all the powers of an elected Board of Education and the Superintendent combined in one person, a CEO. Spelled out in the list of enumerated powers was authority over bonds and capital projects, as well as all other District funds. The elected Board model that had existed since 1842 was disestablished.

Then State Rep. Ed Vaughn stood on a desk on the House floor in 1999 to protest PA 10; Michigan's legislators today don't even leave the state to stop the vote as have Wisconsin senators

This Public Act initiated a massive abuse of District finances created by a one-man system with no board to oversee contracts or operations. It was a model of unaccountability.

When the 1999 takeover was implemented” DPS had modestly increasing student enrollment (see Appendix A). The District had a $100 million positive fund balance (see Appendix B) and academic scores in the broad mid -range of districts in the state. There was no performance justification for the takeover. The conventional wisdom is that the actual reason for the takeover was to take control of $1.2 billion remaining from the $1.5 billion bond approved by voters in l994.It was a golden egg that tempted too many in Lansing and Detroit.

The abuses of that bond under the CEO are legend: three high schools were built at $130 to $140 million each that were overpriced and in the case of Cass Tech, had ongoing building systems problems. A contractor estimated that the new Renaissance High School could have been built for $72 million, not $130 million that was its actual price tag.Euly childhood centers were built for $20 million that should have been built for $5 million.

Students, parents and DPS workers rallied against Burnley actions

Additionally, the $100 million surplus disappeared. In April, 2004, only two months before the end of the fiscal year, then-CEO Kenneth Bumley announced a deficit projection of $200 million. Governor Jennifer Granholm did not declare the state takeover a failure or impose discipline on Burnley. Instead she approved the sale of $210 million in deficit bonds, giving Burnley another pot of money to spend while saddling the future elected Board with $2 1 million a year in debt for the next I 5 yeaxs. Hence DPS is paying 53 1 5 million for the

$210 million state-approved loan, or 5Ao/o in loan costs.

Burnley commenced the closing of 27 schools and the layoff of thousands of employees, creating a panic among parents that caused the immediate loss of over 9,000 students. The enrollment loss in the next two years was 19,697 students, exceeding the loss of the previous four years by several thousand.

DPS enrollment drastically declined during Burnley era

Those consequences could have been ameliorated by prudent planning early in the fiscal year. The DPS Coalition of Unions, for instance, gave Burnley a plan in December 2003, five months into the fiscal year, that would have saved the District $150 million, but Burnley remained silent on the deficit, repeatedly refusing to acknowledge the coming deficit or even receipt of the savings plan.

By waiting until ten months into the fiscal year, Burnley stated that he needed to perform radical surgery on DPS in order to save a lot of money in the remaining two months. Even some on the appointed board, such as businessman Bill Brooks, felt that he let the situation get out of control and that Burnley should b€ fired. Then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick squelched that talk.

The takeover system was supposed to improve DPS, according to the 1999 justifications for Public Act 10. The law even set up a School District Accountability Board to review its operations. It was a high-powered group, composed of the State Budget Director, State Treasurer, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and two appointees of the Governor. They failed to catch the failure.

Keep the Vote No Takeover celebrates defeat of Prop E in 2004

In one quick season, the wisdom of a one-man system of unaccountability and the notion of mayoral control were both discredited. On the Proposal E 2004 referendtrm, voters decided by a 2 to 1 margin to not support permanent Mayoral control of the school system, even though the pro-Mayor forces outspent their opponents 20 to I on the ballot issue.

The State of Michigan, Governor Granholm, and those who supported the failed

CEO/Mayor system never published a study of the six-and-a-half year CEO project. No audits were done, no indictments were drawn up, no in-depth media probes were reported. Everyone letit die quietly, privately conceding that it failed. They passed the legacy debt burden and the dropping enrollment crisis to the newly elected Board of Education.

DPS workers fight school closings Aug. 25 2009

For the next three years the elected Board struggled with the debt, closed lots of schools and was, especially in 2008, in continuous dialogue with the Michigan Department of Education over the deficit elimination plan. At the end of 2008, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mike Flanagan, declared that a financial emergency existed at DPS. Granholm then selected Robert Bobb to be the Emergency Financial Manager with little apparent review of his background.

Enter Robert Bobb

Governor Granholm imposed a second State takeover. While the 1999 takeover came through the front door with explicit legislative authority, Granholm avoided seeking direct legislative approval. She used the emergency financial statute to give power to Robert Bobb to not only take over finances, which the law allows, but she approved use of that power to unlawfully control academics and thus all spending of the District. She thus effected a total State takeover under her direct authority without legislative or voter approval. This gave her direct but behind-the-scenes control over Bobb’s actions, as Bobb’s contract says that he can be fired by the Governor at any time without cause.

DPS children joined workers to protest Bobb's policies Aug. 25, 2009

When making this appointment, Granholm and Bobb promised a cooperative relationship with the Board over academic authority. As Bobb prepared to come to Detroit he and Granholm clearly promised that the Board would retain academic authority. Once on the scene, however, those commitinents were broken. Hence there was even less accountability under the Granholm arrangement than there was during the Burnley era. There is no oversight body with the legal authority to review or evaluate Bobb’s conduct.

Until the Board of Education took Bobb to court, he did not share information with the Board or the General Superintendent, whom he referred to in public as the Acting Superintendent. He has cut the Board’s small staff to only two people and the Superintendent had only one person reporting to her until Bobb fired her. While the law does not give him the power over the academic plan of the District, Bobb has used the threat of job loss to effectively stop anyone from helping the Board carry out its lawful duties, with the encouragement of the Govemor Granholm.

Where are today's Black revolutionaries?

(and my request to abandon ship)

 

March 8, 2011

By Fige Bornu

aka Roland Lawrence

How long have we heard that the Black people in America spend hundreds of billions of dollars each and every year on goods, services and other things?  In a capitalistic country like the United States, hundreds of billions of dollars stand for clout.  But, why has this clout escaped the Black community?  Why do more than 25 percent of Black men spend time in jail, prisons and probation at any given time?  Why do Black people in America experience the worse of health disparities?  Why? Why? Why?

Bishop Charles Ellis prays for auto corporations

Well, I can answer these questions quite simply.  It is because Black people in America do not have a true, consistent and vocal activist/revolutionary demographic that is united, persistent and on the same page or at least nearly on the same page.  The Black community in America has been hijacked by corporations, religions, and all the things that divide and conquer.  Ok, I know, you have heard this before, and know like I do, that these are the reasons for our dismal conditions. 

Rev. Wendell Anthony of Detroit NAACP and Kid Rock

But, how in the hell can anyone explain the fact that the Detroit branch of the NAACP found the nerve to announce that they are going to honor country and western singer, Kid Rock?  This so-called musician displays the confederate flag on the stage when he performs, and does not have any attributes that would put him a position to be honored by this organization.  This revelation, my people, is one of the most telling signs of what has happened to our community.  Trust me, the death of 7 year-old Aiyana Jones is by far the most horrific tragedy we have faced in recent times, and this Kid Rock thing, is, I surmise, a natural complement to her death – considering the fact that hardly no one, including the NAACP, has fought to get justice for her.

Jewel Allison with daughter Honesti, 11, lead protest against Aiyana Jones' murder last June

I am writing this essay to say that I have decided to take a “back stage” role in the fight for Black liberation in America.  Why?  It is because Black people in America have crossed the line.  They have succumbed to the beastly work of those who have and continue to work 24/7 plus overtime to oppress them and eventually destroy them.  Black people in America today in great masses do not thrive to create revolutionary changes in their communities.  Black people, it appears, seem content on simply fighting to “keep up” with what white people have; thus, they do not see or care or fight for any collective stance against racism, imperialism, etc.  Black people in great numbers have decided to “join” their oppressors in the plan to finally and completely control them and eventually destroy them.

What happens to a dream deferred--does it dry up like a raisin in the sun--OR DOES IT EXPLODE?

Because of this worsening pathology that has Black people working against their own best interests, I have no interest of any degree to assist them in their demise.  And to those few that are working to liberate us – I say to them – you are wasting your time.  To be clear, human beings are simply flesh and bones, and will suffer and die out when pressed too hard or too long.  This is what has happened to Black people in America; they have been dumped down to the ground, and can’t get up.  Their only chance of revival is in the chance that their oppressors will first destroy themselves which may then give Blacks in America a chance to make themselves over in their own image.

October 1966 Black Panther Party
Platform and Program

What We Want
What We Believe

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.

We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

Angela Davis rallies supporters for Black Panther goals

2. We want full employment for our people.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our Black Community.

We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment as currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over twenty million black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.

Family prays in front of house where Tro'vion, 5, Selena, 3, and Fantasia Young died in fire after DTE shut off their power last year

4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.

We believe that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.

5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.

6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service.

We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary.

Child cries after police pepper-sprayed demonstration against school closings, held in front of the now closed Northern High School in 2007

7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.

We believe we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves for self defense.

8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.

We believe that all black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

Fortieth anniversary of Attica Rebellion this September

9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.

We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that black people will receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of the “average reasoning man” of the black community.

10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny.

Children educated by Black Panthers

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.  

Victory in Egypt this year

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to supper, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Michael Moore at Madison, Wisconsin rally

SPEECH BY MICHAEL MOORE

Speech delivered at Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, March 5, 2011

Click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgNuSEZ8CDw to hear Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore.

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you’ll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It’s just that it’s not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Protesters outside Mayor Dave Bing's state of the city speech Feb. 22, 2011

Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer “bailout” of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can’t bring yourself to call that a financial coup d’état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we’d have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic — and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.

I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here’s what I learned: Money doesn’t grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don’t pay their fair share of taxes, the state can’t function. The schools can’t produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs.  That too caused a reduction in revenue. And the population ended up suffering because they reduced their taxes, reduced our jobs and took wealth out of the system, removing it from circulation.

State of the city protest Feb. 22, 2011

The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. It’s part of the Big Lie. It’s one of the three biggest lies of the decade: America/Wisconsin is broke, Iraq has WMD, the Packers can’t win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.

The truth is, there’s lots of money to go around. LOTS. It’s just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn’t work, they’ve got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:

Hands off our schools

1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day – this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart — because you — yes, you, too! — might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep your head down, your nose to the grindstone, don’t rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.

Students protest alongside their teachers in Madison, Wisconsin; many have led walk-outs from their schools

2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it’s Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin’ awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. “Here! Take our money! We don’t care. We’ll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!”

The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).

Protesters in Washington, D.C. support Wisconsin

Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant know as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone tells us America is broke and broken. It’s just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!

Tunisian protesters raise photo of Mohamed Bouazizi, the fruit vendor who set himself on fire and died to protest poverty there, giving rising to the Tunisian revolution

So how do we get this? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.

Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois — whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn’t have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn’t be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more – something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job — their $19,000 a year job. That’s how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilots flying people here to Madison. But he’s stopped trying to get better pay. All he asks is that he doesn’t have to sleep in his car between shifts at O’Hare airport. That’s how despicably low we have sunk. The wealthy couldn’t be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They wanted to take away his sleep. They wanted to demean and dehumanize him. After all, he’s just another slob.

Victory in Egypt

And that, my friends, is Corporate America’s fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement — a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don’t understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. “Why are they all standing out there in the cold? I mean there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!

“There’s something happening here, and you don’t know what it is, do you…?”

America ain’t broke! The only thing that’s broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it’s one person, one vote, and it’s the thing the rich hate most about America — because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!

Madison, do not retreat.  We are with you. We will win together.

State Rep. Rashida Tlaib

Dear parents, educators and advocates,

We can no longer afford to keep “kicking the can” in the  face of our school districts by just “cutting our way to a balanced budget. Our school communities deserve better than what Governor Snyder’s proposed budget would deliver. His plan simply kicks that can to the schoolhouses’ front doors and fails to deal with fixing the REAL problems.

Synder’s proposed budget has REAL financial consequences to our schools:

• $470 per pupil cut to K-12
• Eliminates the total funding for the bilingual education grants – $2.8 million
• $452 million in Foundation Allowance Payments to K-12
• Raids the School Aid Fund for K-12 to cover up Higher Education/Community Colleges cuts

Our state is in a tough situation, but Governor Snyder’s proposed cuts go against our most important job as lawmakers – facilitating job creation and supporting families. You can count on me to work in a bipartisan manner until we pass a fair and balanced budget.

I cannot achieve this alone, however – I need to count on you as well. I invite you to attend the following Appropriations Subcommittee meetings being held here in Lansing:

Tuesday, March 8

10:30 a.m.: Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid, Room 426 Capitol Building

Tuesday, March 15

10:30 a.m.: Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid, Room 426 Capitol Building

Noon: Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, Room 426 Capitol Building

Tuesday, March 22

10:30 a.m.: Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid, Room 426 Capitol Building

Noon: Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, Room 426 Capitol Building

Tuesday, March 29

10:30 a.m.: Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid, Room 426 Capitol Building

Noon: Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, Room 426 Capitol Building

Your involvement will provide REAL feedback in the following ways:

• Acknowledging ongoing cost-saving measures already occurring
• Providing perspective from local school community members that will be impacted
• Speaking to the changes that SHOULD be happening instead of “just cutting” budgets

If you are able to attend, please contact my office at the number below.

Please forward this invitation to your school contacts, be they officials, administrators, teachers, parents, students, PTO members, coaches, or club advisers.

Thank you, and I hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

 State Representative Rashida H. Tlaib
12^th House District

For more information please visit my website.

Office Address
N691 House Office Building

Mailing Address
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

Phone: 517-373-0823
Fax: 517-373-5993         Toll-free   877-852-4212

Editor: If you are unable to attend, you can watch some of these sessions on-line live at http://house.michigan.gov/htv.asp.

Below is the webcast schedule for the upcoming days:

Aiyana's grieving classmate Diamond Hardy, 7, shows child's photo as father Charles Jones (to her right) grieves in front of window shattered by police grenade. Photo by Diane Bukowski

Authorities will not release name or set time for further review

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT, March 5 – According to the office of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, Michigan State Police have announced that their investigation into the death of seven-year-old Aiyana Jones last May is now complete. The child was shot to death by Detroit police during a military style raid on her home that was being filmed for the national TV show “48 Hours.”

Killer cop Joseph Weekley

Prosecutor Worthy’s office said the State Police forwarded a request for a warrant for one male to them, but refused to release the individual’s name. It was unclear if the warrant is for the police officer who is being sued for the shooting, Joseph Weekley, or any other individual connected to the case.

“We cannot give an exact date when our review will be completed,” Maria Miller, Worthy’s communications chief, said Mar. 3. “The warrant package that we received yesterday is the result of a nine-month investigation by the Michigan State Police which contains hundreds of pages of reports and a great deal of evidence. It is important that we take the time that is necessary to thoroughly and carefully review [the] matter. When the process is completed a decision will be announced.”

Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy; photo by Diane Bukowski

Ms. Worthy’s office normally investigates all police-related shootings in the county, but she declined to investigate the Aiyana Jones killing and turned it over to the State Police. It is unclear why her office now needs further review. Ms. Worthy has not prosecuted a single Detroit police officer for killing anyone since she first became famous in 1992, when she prosecuted Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn for the beating death of Malice Green.

Mohamed Okdie, who was chair of the city’s Board of Police Commissioners at the time of the Aiyana Jones killing, said then that he did not believe Ms. Worthy would bring charges.

He also castigated Detroit Mayor Dave Bing for his actions in the case. Mr. Bing barred further coverage of Detroit police activities by reality shows, but then endorsed the filming in the city of the fictional cop series “Detroit 1-8-7.”

Former police commission chair Mohamed Okdie

“I instigated a call for an independent citizens’ committee to determine whether police procedures were properly followed,” Mr. Okdie said. “Two days after Aiyana was killed, I told Mayor Bing he needed to make a statement and consult with community groups. I said I would help get the groups together. But his response was, ‘It doesn’t matter, people are going to complain anyway.’” 

Family members were contacted but said they had been advised by their attorney Geoffrey Fieger to obtain his approval before commenting further on the recent development, subsequent to a press conference held without his knowledge.

Aiyana's grandmother Mertilla Jones (r) describes police assault at press conference last May; (l to r) father Charles Jones, clutching Aiyana's princess shoes, attorney Geoffrey Fieger, and mother Dominika Stanley listen

“Aiyana Jones has become our child martyr because she was quietly sleeping when the police ruthlessly invaded her space and killed her,” said Roland Lawrence, chair of the Detroit-based Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee “The Detroit Police should create an entity within itself called the Aiyana Jones Public Service Unit (AJPSU) that will oversee its daily operations with the goal of making sure that all Detroit citizens and others regardless of race, income, social status, etc. are afforded a fair, safe and transparent interaction as it pertains to police business.” 

Mr. Jones had previously announced that his organization was planning a memorial protest on the first-year anniversary of the child’s death, May 16 of this year.

The horrific raid on the Jones’ family home, located in a poor east-side Detroit neighborhood,  and the death of Aiyana, who was shot once in the head, drew world-wide outrage.

Mertilla Jones today Photo Fox 2 News

In a search for an alleged suspect in a previous killing, a military-style “Special Response Team” threw an incendiary grenade through the front window of the family’s living room. The child and  her grandmother Mertilla Jones, 46, were sleeping on a couch directly below the window.

An officer identified by Fieger as Joseph Weekley, who is a resident of the wealthy predominantly white suburb of Grosse Pointe Park, shot Aiyana through the top of her head from the doorway of the home, according to a reconstruction done by Fieger’s investigators.

“As soon as they hit the window, I hit the floor and reached for my grandbaby,” Aiyana’s grandmother Mertilla Jones said afterwards. “I saw the light go out of her eyes and blood coming out of her mouth. I had never seen anything like that before: my beautiful, gorgeous granddaughter. I can’t trust them; I can’t trust the Detroit police.”

Graphic depicts shooting of Aiyana Jones, as reconstructed pursuant to second autopsy conducted by Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz

Charles Jones, the child’s father, said the morning after the raid, “It hurts so bad. I just lost my baby, she was so beautiful. She was an honor roll student and very artistic. She loved her family and friends and was very popular in school with her classmates.”

The depth of the family’s ongoing grief was apparent from newsreel footage of the press conference May 4, which showed that the child’s grandmother had lost a significant amount of weight. Mr. Lawrence said she told him she has not been able to sleep or eat properly since her granddaughter’s killing.

Detroit police arrested Ms. Jones immediately after the invasion and held her for 48 hours, claiming she had tried to interfere with a police officer, but then released her without charges.

State Police conducting investigation at Jones home on Lillibridge last year

Fieger has filed two civil lawsuits on behalf of the family in the case, one against Officer Weekley and an unidentified officer, and one against “48 Hours” and its sponsoring network, A&E.

A&E Television Network (AETN), raked in $1.05 billion in revenue in 2005, according to Advertising Age, an industry publication, AETN is jointly owned by NBC Enterprises, which made $12.44 billion, Disney, which made $17.14 billion, and Hearst Enterprises.

Roland Lawrence said the Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee is still planning its May 16 anniversary protest of her killing. He can be reached by emailing justice4aiyana@hotmail.com.

Edward Sanders and baby, before he was sentenced to life for an offense that happened at 17; he was not the shooter.

Edward with daughter Shay years later; he is now 53, a college grad, and assists other prisoners with legal appeals. He and Michigan's other juvenile lifers are hoping for the success of the ACLU lawsuit.

(Ed. note: In November, 2010, the Michigan ACLU filed a lawsuit, Hill et. al. v. Granholm, on behalf of nine of Michigan’s more than 350 “juvenile lifers,” who were sentenced to life without parole before their 18^th birthdays.  

“The lawsuit charges that a Michigan sentencing scheme that denies the now-adult plaintiffs an opportunity for parole and a fair hearing to demonstrate their growth, maturity and rehabilitation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and violates their constitutional rights,” said the ACLU.

The ACLU’s complete release and links to the lawsuit and the Second Chance website which supports an end to the policy of sentencing juveniles to die in prison, are at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=2669. 

A review of federal court filings shows that the defendants, now Gov. Rick Snyder, Richard McKeon, Interim Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections,  and Barbara Sampson, chair of the Michigan Parole Board, filed a “motion to dismiss, or alternatively a motion for summary judgment” on Feb. 28. The motion primarily raises legal technicalities regarding time limits. 

A  motion hearing has been set for April 21 at 2:15 p.m. before U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara, in the federal building on W. Lafayette.) 

Dante D. Collingham

Article below is by Dante. D. Cottingham #259241, Voice of Juvenile Defendants 

As most of you already know, I’ve been in Prison for nearly 16 years now. I was incarcerated when I was a teenager and next month, February 20th, I’ll be 33 yrs old. I literally was forced to grow from a child to an adult in prison, a process that was long, cold and difficult, but yet a process that taught me a couple very important things.

Some of the most powerful things that I read in the sentences that detail my history is the fact that a child has absolutely NO place in an adult prison, I see that a child has absolutely NO place within an adult court room, I see the fact Judges and Lawyers, Parents and Politicians were/are smart enough to do better for the most vulnerable sector of our society. Smart enough to adjudicate its children in a more responsible way that is directly connected to the spirit of rehabilitation that values a child’s potential, and that respects cutting edge science. World history is saturated with stories where societies’ sophistication was far more advanced than societies’ Laws and Policies, that is, until a group of people, like Dr. Martin Luther King and the SNCC, adopted an issue and proactively pursued progressive transformations.

Davontae Sanford of Detroit was 14 when he was convicted of four murders to which a professional hit man has confessed, but Prosecutor Kym Worthy will not withdraw charges against him

Well today, in our era, that issue is a Juvenile Justice Issue. It’s time for the responsible adults of our era to prevent our children being waived into the adult system and being discarded into adult prisons. There are thousands upon thousands of adolescents in adult court rooms and prisons all across the U.S. but it can be stopped with your help, by adopting this issue we can take children from the grips of adult prisons, and place them on the path that leads to their maximal development.

I implore you to go to the Volunteer page and see how you can help.
Thank you for your time and attention and I look forward to working with you.

Dante. D. Cottingham #259241

[In one of my most significant dreams, I shed my human Characteristics, I take the form of a light, a bright mobile soaring light, that is, I take the form of my soul…unadulterated.
I am hovering in what must be a part of space, for the darkness is absolute, and I am instinctively and patiently waiting, for what? I am unsure. Then instantly lights resembling my own start to appear, thousands and thousands at first but by the time they stop coming there is no question that hundreds of millions of lights are before me, hundreds of millions of souls are before me as if we are in an infinite stadium in the sky, enclosed by four walls of darkness, it looks as if I am on a podium in front of millions of stars.

Jennifer Pruitt was a 16-yr.-old runaway when an older woman companion killed a man.

……We are in grave danger of Losing the hearts and minds and souls of our sons and daughters, to the maleficent appendages of our societies. There exists in countries world-wide, from the poorest to the richest, governmental policies and societal influences that are not conducive to our children’s’ maximal development.

Their eagerness to hear me speak to them is unmistakable! It becomes beautifully apparent that I am about to articulate my soul’s essence to the souls of the world’s adult population. So through the utilisation of thought I speak to them, I speak to them about our most precious possessions, our world’s most significant and vital resource, I speak to them about the only vehicle that can be used to navigate the course which leads to world peace, I speak to them about our children, I say to them……..]

Nathaniel Abraham tried in adult court at 11, was sentenced as a juvenile but subjected to media persecution when released, which deprived him of a chance at a career, home, and education; he is now back in prison.

For example……currently in the United States there are two systems for processing Individuals who commit crimes: The Criminal Justice system for adults and the Juvenile Justice System for children. Not long ago these systems differed significantly in virtually all respects, including their principles, procedures and dispositions. While punishment for adults was premised on retribution and deterrence, children were generally subject to diversion or short term legal restraint which in theory emphasised rehabilitation.

However between the 1960’s and present day, the Juvenile system’s philosophy and structure has come to closely imitate the Adult system. Legislatures have narrowed Juvenile Court Jurisdiction, nudged what is left of that Jurisdiction towards a punishment orientation that often downplays treatment and Indeed imposes adult criminal procedures and determinate sentences. Children are being transferred to adult systems far too early and far too often, something that must be reserved for the truly unnameable to treatment, which is a very narrow category for people.

For children are less responsible for their actions because of cognitive and volitional developmental deficiencies and thus should receive special treatment. I mean, the moral and decision making capacities of children between seven and eighteen are inferior, and this inferiority should, must be recognised through treatment in a separate system. Children as a class are not psychologically developed in legally relevant ways, and since it is worldly and humanly possible to reconstruct these governmental policies that advocate discarding its children into garbage receptacle called adult prisons, we must dutifully make that our goal.

Damion Todd of Detroit, 16 when sent to prison

[The light that is my soul glides from before them, I glide amongst them for I desire to see how it feels to be so close to so many souls, but more importantly I want all these souls’ to feel the intensity of my light, my energy. When I am intimately amongst them I acknowledge that there are no skin colours, no religions, no cultures, no social classes to separate us. There’s a deep natural feeling of unification within the energy that connects every soul in attendance. I continue……..]

……….. Since it is humanly, worldly possible to eradicate the feeling of hunger from within the belly of every starving child, to render the famine obsolete, we must dutifully make this our goal, Since it is humanly, worldly possible to eradicate the Juvenile delinquency problem all over the world by focusing on the problem, making it a high priority and relentlessly pursuing the answers, we must dutifully make this our goal.
Since it is humanly, worldly possible to utilise pro-action in each and every one of our communities in the form of being mentors, sports coaches and referees, fighting against the detrimental laws and policies, donating to reputable and effective organisations, we must dutifully make that our goal.

Henry Hill of Saginaw, sentenced at 16

[I soar through the millions of souls until I am hovering directly in the middle of them all, their attention following me intently, then i say with earnest conviction……]

Our every goal is possible to achieve only if we recognise, accept and embrace our natural occupations as Ambassadors, as Diplomatic Officers with the highest rank appointed and accredited as representatives of every child on the face of our earth, Advocating the proliferation of world-wide systems being implemented in Countries everywhere that are designed to ensure our kids reach their maximal development, for that is the only way that future generations have a chance to experience world peace.

Bobby Hines of Detroit, sentenced at 15

[As you were reading this article your physical body was seated stationary in front of your computer, but your soul was with me soaring around that infinite stadium. Goodbye until the next time I summon your Soul!…]

Prosecutor Tom Trzcinski examines witness last year as defense attorney Susan Reed and defendant Jason Gibson listen

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT – “On May 3, 2010, at 3:38 a.m., Mrs. Danielle Jameson and Paul Jameson made a 91l call,” Wayne County Prosecutor Tom Trzcinski said as he set the scene in his opening statement Mar. 2 in the trial of Jason Alexander Gibson, 27, for the murder of Detroit police sergeant Brian Huff and the wounding of three other officers last May.

“The call was a report of a B & E [breaking and entering] in progress, shots fired,” Trzcinski said. Shortly afterwards, he reported, “Officer [Sgt. Brian] Huff, a large man, over 6 feet, and close to 400 pounds, with a large flashlight, gun still holstered, is on the front porch. [His partner Joseph] D’Angelo flips a chain wire fence to be in a position to see the backyard.”

Detroit Police Officer Brian Huff, dead under mysterious circumstances

“Officer [John] Dunlap hears Huff announce “Police,” and kick the door. He perhaps made it a few steps inside. Mr. Gibson is waiting on Huff . . . .Officer Huff never had a chance.”

Trzcinski then described how Huff, a 12-year Detroit police veteran, was shot twice in the head and neck, with one shot severing his brain stem. A slight man, Trzcinski dramatically acted out the scene, standing close to a jury of 15 members, including six African-Americans.

Gibson is facing 18 counts of murder, assault with intent to murder, and related charges, in the incident which included a wild shoot-out at 20263 Schoenherr near Eight Mile on Detroit’s east side. His trial is taking place in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, who endured an assault from the daily media last year for giving Smith bond in a 2009 CCW case, which has not yet been adjudicated.

Officer Huff's partner Joseph D'Angelo testifies at preliminary exam last June

Some have contended that the duplex where Huff died was used to store drugs for distribution by the police, and that Huff may have been set up. A close friend of Huff’s said he reportedly blew the whistle on other officers for illegal deeds several years previously.  (See VOD article, “More brutality and corruption likely under police chief Ralph Godbee,” at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=5112 .)

Several weeks before his death, according to relatives, Huff and his family traveled to San Diego, possibly to seek other employment.

The scenario set up by Trzcinski, and testimony given by next door neighbor Paul Jameson on Mar. 3, contradicted much of the testimony from Gibson’s preliminary exam last June 3.

Side of 20263 Schoenherr; D'Angelo testified he jumped over the fence and later arrested Gibson in the backyard; he said last year he saw no gun with Gibson; witness Paul Jameson lives to the left of photo

During that exam, Jameson testified that he reported “three thumps,” not gunshots, in the backyard of the house during the 911 call. Although Trzcinski entered into evidence hundreds of other items including photographs, bullets, shell casings and blood samples Mar. 2 and 3, the tape of the 911 call was not among them.

Huff’s partner Joseph D’Angelo testified at the preliminary exam that their car arrived on the scene first, and that he and Huff approached the house, Huff from the front and D’Angelo from the back, prior to the arrival of back-up. D’Angelo said he did not witness Huff’s shooting, but arrested Jason Gibson at the rear of the house and handcuffed him to a fence. (See article by this reporter, who covered the entire exam, at http://michigancitizen.com/answers-sought-in-cops-death-p8708-1.htm ).

However, during his opening statement Mar. 2, Trzcinski said a cordon of officers “embraced” (surrounded) the house prior to Huff’s entry.

Paul Jameson

Under direct questioning, Jameson greatly expanded on what he said at the preliminary exam. Two police officers in plainclothes entered the courtroom just before his testimony and sat in the front row of the audience.

Trzcinski avoided asking Jameson what he reported during the 911 call. Jameson, who lives at 20251 Schoenherr, on the south side of the house where Sgt. Huff died, said this time that he heard “loud kicks,” one of which he determined came from outside the house.

He said he exited his house, armed with a Smith and Wesson .45 pistol for which he has a CCW, looked over his privacy fence at the backyard of the duplex, but saw nothing amiss. He testified he then proceeded to the front of his house and took cover behind a tree there, dropping to one knee and holding his gun out with both hands.

20263-65 Schoenherr; duplex at left was involved in shooting

“Then I can see lights moving throughout the house,” he said, noting they appeared to be flashlights on the first and second levels.

“I could hear a police officer vehicle coming down Schoenherr pretty fast, with no siren on,” Jameson said. “Its engines were revved up. It made a U-turn and came back in front of the house. At the same time another car pulled up in front of my tree and an officer got out and tapped me on the shoulder.”

He said he told the officer what he had observed and informed him he was the source of the call.

“More and more officers were coming to the scene in patrol cars,” Jameson said. “Some were unmarked, but pretty much all were uniformed officers.”

Officer Joseph Dunlap at preliminary exam

During the preliminary exam, undercover officers Joseph Dunlap and Brian Glover said they were present at the scene in a black unmarked van. A neighbor from the north side of the house told this reporter last year that the black van was parked in the driveway of the duplex, and that large garbage bags were outside the van.

Photographs of a white van in the driveway were included in the exhibits entered by Trzcinski, but no photograph of a black van or nearby bags was entered into evidence.

Although Dunlop and Glover testified last year that they saw Gibson exit the duplex, gun blazing, Jameson made no reference to seeing him from his prime vantage point, during his testimony Mar. 3.

“I saw officers gathering in front,” Jameson said. “Officer Huff was coming on the scene then. He kind of like took charge. He was rallying people behind him, in uniform, then pretty much looking through a crack in the door. Two or three officers were close behind. I think he was the only one on the porch.”

Jameson began sniffing and crying, although he did not cry during the preliminary exam. A deputy sheriff provided him with tissues.

Officer Brian Huff in candid shot

“I remember Huff looking back and asking, ‘Are you guys ready?’” Jameson testified. “He said ‘police,’ kicks the door open, and I observed him go in the house. Almost immediately I heard two or three gunshots, inside. There was a brief pause, then there were multiple shots outside.”

Jameson testified that after he heard officers moaning that they were shot, he dragged one behind his tree, then helped another officer drag Huff out of the house down at least four concrete steps. He said he was holding one leg while the officer held another, and that Huff was on his “belly.” \

He said he observed blood coming out of Huff’s head after they got him on the ground.

Officer who testified at preliminary

Officer testifying at preliminary

Jameson testified that he and three other officers tried to get Huff into a police car, and he attempted CPR, which he learned while serving in the army. He said that an EMS vehicle “finally” arrived, and that he noticed Huff’s gun was still holstered when one of the EMS technicians told them to take Huff’s belt off.

At that point in the testimony, Melissa Huff, Huff’s wife, left the courtroom and could be heard loudly sobbing outside. Judge Hathaway adjourned the trial in the middle of Jameson’s testimony for the day, at about 3:40 p.m.

Evidence technician Thomas Smith

Prior to Jameson’s testimony, Police Officers Thomas Smith and Raymond Diaz, who are evidence technicians, spent most of Mar. 2 and 3 verifying items that Trzcinski entered into evidence.

On cross-examination by Gibson’s attorney Susan Reed, they said they arrived at the scene at 4:40 a.m., approximately an hour after the 911 call, and stayed until 3 or 4 p.m. They testified that two civilian forensics technicians did not arrive to dust for fingerprints until 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. that morning, and stayed for only a few hours.

Smith said that as evidence technicians, they select items to examine, sometimes at the direction of the officer in charge of the scene. He said neither a blue plastic container nor a large plastic baggie of marijuana, located in the dining room of the house, were dusted for fingerprints. He said the plastic container had a rough surface but could have been taken to the lab for fingerprinting using a different process. It was, however, left at the house along with beer and pop bottles and cans from which DNA samples were taken.

Defense attorney Susan Reed cross-examines witness

Smith and Diaz identified numerous bullets and shell casings from different weapons, including several from the 45 caliber automatic on which Trczinski said Gibson’s fingerprints were found.

(Huff’s partner Alexander testified at the preliminary that he saw no gun with Gibson when he chained him to the duplex’s backyard fence. But Officers Ernie Harris and Christopher Champaign, who arrived later on the scene, testified that a 45-millimeter Ruger 290 hand gun with its serial number shaved off was lying on the ground “a foot” from Gibson’s head.)

Many other items of evidence included 32 and 40 caliber Federal, Spear, and Winchester 45 bullets and shell casings, one of which wound up as far south of the scene as 20221 Schoenherr, confirming Jameson’s report during the preliminary exam that the area “lit up like Beirut.”

Smith also identified items of clothing, including a torn blue hooded sweatshirt and shirt, size 4 X, found in the street along with a cell phone and a large torn plastic baggie of marijuana several doors south of the murder scene. Testimony from officers at the preliminary exam was that Gibson exited the house and ran directly around the side into the backyard, nowhere near where those items were found.

Additionally, a large white towel with some bloodstains, and a pair of black and gray gym shoes, size 13, were entered into evidence. From observation, Gibson does not appear to wear a size 4X or size 13 shoes.

During his opening statement, Trzcinski said the duplex was occupied by a “Mr. Bolling.” However, Smith identified photographs of its interior which showed no beds, dressers or clothing in the closets in the upstairs bedrooms. The only furniture in photographs of the downstairs level were several metal and plastic chairs along with a refrigerator. Smith said the electric meter was missing from the back of the house and no electricity was on.

Huff's uncle T. W. Bankston

A short morning session was scheduled for Friday, with the trial expected to resume next week. Judge Hathaway indicated to the jury that it is likely to continue for up to three to four weeks. In October, Judge Hathaway granted a prosecution motion allowing witnesses including police officers from two previous cases against Gibson to be examined at this trial.

As he left the courtroom for the day, Huff’s uncle T.W. Bankston said, “My nephew is dead, we can’t bring him back. Our family is all praying people, and we pray that justice is brought and the right people are convicted, the ones that killed my nephew.”  

Bankston and his wife attended the Mar. 3 session, along with Huff’s sister Tanise Blair. Various other relatives sat with his wife both days. Also in attendance both days were a man who identified himself as Jason Gibson’s father, and a woman who appeared to be his mother.

Detroit Police Dept. Asst. Chief Ralph Godbee addressed the media last May after police officer Joseph Weekley shot 7-year-old Aiyana Jones to death

 Mohamed Okdie said: “It will be business as usual, and it will be horrible.” 

 Ron Scott, others lauded Godbee  

By Diane Bukowski 

(Ed. note: this story as written last year was rejected for publication while the author was still employed by the Michigan Citizen. It is being printed in the Voice of Detroit now due to its relevance to current events, including the trial of Jason Gibson in the death of Officer Brian Huff, and the recent announcement that Michigan State Police have submitted a warrant request for a man in the death of Aiyana Jones last May 16.) 

DETROIT – Does Mayor Dave Bing’s discharge of Police Chief Warren Evans and his appointment of Ralph Godbee as acting chief portend any change in the Detroit Police Department’s notorious culture of brutality, cover-ups, and corruption?  

Former Detroit Police Commissioner Chair Mohamed Okdie

Not so, says former Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) chair Mohamed Okdie, recently removed by Bing after five years on the Commission. 

‘It’s going to be business as usual, and it will be horrible,” Okdie told this reporter in an exclusive interview. “Godbee is part of the good ol’ boy network, and will go along with anything and do anything to save his job.” 

To explain Evans’ firing, Bing cited his dissatisfaction with a Hollywood promo video showing Evans as a macho, tough-guy chief personally routing out criminals in the country’s former “murder capital.” Bing admitted, however, that he saw the video weeks before he fired Evans. 

Bing also blamed Evans for authorizing the A&E reality TV show “48 Hours” to tail the Detroit Police Special Response Team. That team carried out a horrific assault on the home of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones May 16, during which white officer Joseph Weekley shot the little girl to death. 

Killer cop Joseph Weekley

Aiyana Jones' father Charles Jones with her photo

Bing failed to note that the show also needed the approval of his appointee in the city’s film office and the city council to operate in city limits. 

Bing did not refer to the bizarre death of police officer Brian Huff, shot to death on the city’s east side May 3 after the 12-year veteran responded to an alleged “shots fired” call. Huff was the only cop of dozens on the scene who did not unholster his gun before entering the residence involved. 

Nonetheless, that case hovers in the shadows of Evans’ one-year tenure and is now in Godbee’s lap.  The lone man accused in the killing, Jason Gibson, faces pre-trial Aug. 6 and trial Oct. 12 in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway. 

Officer Brian Huff

Okdie said he fought for Bing and the Board of Police Commissioners to investigate Jones’ and Huff’s deaths. Godbee represented the police in press conferences on both cases. 

“I instigated a call for an independent citizens’ committee to determine whether police procedures were properly followed,” Okdie said. “Two days after Aiyana was killed, I told Mayor Bing he needed to make a statement and consult with community groups. I said I would help get the groups together. But his response was, ‘It doesn’t matter, people are going to complain anyway.’” 

Okdie said Bing and Evans conveniently dumped investigation of the case on the Michigan State Police (MSP), who he believes will do nothing. MSP Second District Commander Harold Love refused comment on any progress in that investigation during a news conference held by Evans July 1. 

Mayor Dave Bing and Deputy Mayor Saul Green

Okdie said Deputy Mayor Saul Green met with him to squelch his plans to publish a statement on the case, including an opinion from an expert on police matters. 

Regarding the Huff case, Okdie referred to talk around the police department that the scene o his killing was a police-operated drug house and that Huff was set up. 

“I was sniffing around about police procedures in entering that house and they didn’t like it and got rid of me,” he said. “The Mayor’s office wants control of the Board of Police Commissioners, the Detroit Public Schools, the City Council, everything. That’s their M.O.” 

Okdie added,. “What they did to me is indicative of what their future policy will be. The Commission is not a civilian oversight board.” 

Adela Rivera

He noted that police commissioner Adela Rivera is a retired police officer. After retirement, according to news reports, Rivera shot two men to death in 2003 as they exited her southwest side bar. She claimed they had robbed and assaulted patrons and her manager.

Former Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr. appointed Rivera. Bing has since appointed George Anthony, a retired Ecorse police chief, as board secretary, and former judge Irma Chenevert to run the Office of the Chief Investigator (OCI), which investigates civilian complaints. In addition, said Okdie, Bing slotted eight additional investigator spots in the OCI for police officers. 

Okdie, who was appointed to the BOPC by former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, is studying for a doctorate in social policy at Wayne State University. He was a social worker at Detroit Receiving Hospital and in the Detroit Public Schools and a community liaison for U.S. Rep. John Conyers. He serves on the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents, and belongs to the NAACP and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. 

Bernice Smith

Ron Scott lauded Godbee

In response to a query regarding whether Okdie was removed for reasons related to the Jones and Huff cases. Bing spokesperson Karen Dumas said, “Mr. Okdie’s term on the Police Commission expired July 1, 2010. The documentation shows that clearly. The administration is pleased about the opportunity to appoint Raphael Johnson to the Commission.” 

During the BOPC meeting July 22, Ron Scott and Sandra Hines of The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Inc. along with citizen Bernice Smith, gave unreserved kudos to Godbee during public comment. They said they believed he would do a good job as police chief and that no nationwide search was needed. 

In response to questions from this reporter, Godbee said he would continue a “Comprehensive Violence Reduction Partnership” consisting of eleven federal, state, county and city law enforcement agencies. Evans said July 1 that the CVRP is an “ongoing extended partnership,” with a pilot focus on the Sixth and Eighth Precincts for the summer. 

Detroit police stop and search of young Black males, 2009

 “We have entered into an agreement until the end of the summer,” Godbee said. “This is a temporary means to control violence in the most affected areas, which are determined by crime statistics. It is focused on fugitive apprehension and gives us the investigative capacity and prosecutorial assistance especially as relates to weapons charges. All of us are short of manpower and resources.” 

Godbee also said he would “look into” rampant stops of young African males on E. Jefferson, Belle Isle, and other locations. Many of those stopped have said that police conduct unwarranted and illegal searches of their vehicles. They allege the police do not even ask for their driver’s licenses or insurance information, and are mainly interested in finding guns and drugs, even if the stop is not legitimate. 

Godbee said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the department’s long-awaited risk management database on officers who sustain multiple complaints is now operational. He said he will make every effort to comply with two U.S. Justice Department consent decrees. 

AND SO WHY DID BERNERO LOSE AND THE SNYDER PLAGUE HIT MICHIGAN? Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andy Dillon, right, shakes hands after his concession speech as Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, from left, former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, and wife Carol Dillon look on at his primary election night party in Detroit Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

During his 23-year career with the department, Godbee was in charge of former Mayor Dennis Archer’s Executive Protection Unit from 1995-1999, years during which Detroit ranked as the police killing capital of the country, with more killings by police per capita than any other major city. Media exposes of those killings, initiated by The Michigan Citizen, led to the consent decrees. 

Godbee was head of the police recruiting unit from 1999-2002, during which 30 percent of the officers now on the force were hired, according to his published remarks. According to a DPD bio, he was appointed Commander of the Ninth Precinct in 2002 and afterwards became Commanding Officer of the Risk and Policy Management Division of the Detroit Police Department. He became Commander of the Eastern Operations Unit in March, 2005 and was appointed assistant chief in 2007. 

From 1999 through mid-2010, this writer reported in the Michigan Citizen at least 50 killings and shootings by Detroit police that appeared to be unjustified. In February, 2005, just before Godbee left risk management, police shot four men to death. Since the killing of Aiyana Stanley-Jones in the Eastern District in May, one man was severely wounded  and at least two other men shot to death in that district by police, prior to Godbee’s appointment as Acting Police Chief.

(Breaking news: The Michigan State police announced after the publication of this article and an earlier one by Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee chair Roland Lawrence, that they have completed their investigation and turned a warrant request for an unidentified male over to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office. Her office has said it will take some time to evaluate the request and decide whether to act on it.)

From the Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee

DETROIT – As of 12:00 a.m., Thursday, March 3, 2011, the Michigan State Police investigation into the alleged Detroit Police involved shooting death of 7 year old Aiyana Jones has not been reported to the public as complete. 

The Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee (JAJC)’s position is that regardless of whether Detroit Police Officer Joe Weekley and/or others are charged with Aiyana’s death or not, the wanton disregard and recklessness displayed by the Detroit Police Department that led to Aiyana’s death cannot go unchallenged. 

The Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee wants the Detroit Police Department to admit that the way it handled the arrest of a suspected murderer that resulted in the death of Aiyana Jones was an enormous mistake and tragedy.  In addition, the JAJC wants the Detroit Police to destroy its adherence to the so-called “blue code” where police officers cover for each other regardless of their wrong and unlawful behavior.  Even more, the JAJC wants the Detroit Police Department to become decentralized as an entity controlled by a chief/mayor relationship to one ran by a police commission made up of Detroit residents who are elected to the commission.  

“Aiyana Jones has become our child martyr because she was quietly sleeping when the police ruthlessly invaded her space and killed her,” says JAJC Chairman, Roland Lawrence.  “The Detroit Police should create an entity within itself called the Aiyana Jones Public Service Unit (AJPSU) that will oversee its daily operations with the goal of making sure that all Detroit citizens and others regardless of race, income, social status, etc. are afforded a fair, safe and transparent interaction as it pertains to police business.” 

New Yorker Jewel Allison with daughter Honesti at her right leads June 26, 2010 march to protest Aiyana's death down Woodward Avenue; Allison said she was contacted by people from all over the world who were outraged by the police action.

Lawrence says that anything short of this will not help keep police officers in check who are given almost limitless power over non-police individuals.  “Quiet as it is kept, communities and neighborhoods can police themselves,” he said. “Thus, our police departments should be used primarily to advance social civility.  Our police officers should not only be employed to provide stability to disturbances in our society, they should be partners in helping to destroy the social, political and financial inequalities that help create dysfunction, despair and worse in our community.”

The Justice for Aiyana Jones Committee wants the death of Aiyana Jones to stand as the line drawn in the sand in its efforts to stop police brutality, especially in poor and disenfranchised communities. 

For further information, 

justice4aiyana@hotmail.com

(Those interested in interviewing a representative of the JAJC can call 313-825-6126.)